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Tue, 13 Feb 2018 16:22:04 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4Look who decided to play in the housekeeping centerhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TeachPreschool/~3/JMCHZtuAPz0/
https://teachpreschool.org/2018/01/12/look-decided-play-housekeeping-center/#respondFri, 12 Jan 2018 05:52:36 +0000https://teachpreschool.org/?p=42814Our new housekeeping center Every year before the children come back to preschool after winter break, we try to freshen up our classroom with a few updates or changes in classroom setup. When the children returned from break this year, they discovered a new house keeping center. The space where I could set up my […]

Our new housekeeping center

Every year before the children come back to preschool after winter break, we try to freshen up our classroom with a few updates or changes in classroom setup. When the children returned from break this year, they discovered a new house keeping center.

The space where I could set up my center is not very large and so I had to be very selective in what would go in that space. I wanted the center to be warm and inviting but also include plenty of items that promoted imagination and pretend play.

We are not going to play there!

As soon as the children saw the housekeeping center, one of my little guys exclaimed, “We are not going to play there.” I might have heard his statement incorrectly but I am pretty sure that is what he said. Instead of asking him to repeat what he said, I decided not to give it any attention and just see how it goes.

As soon as it was time for the children to play in centers, guess where my boys headed. Yep, the boys headed straight for the housekeeping center. I think the girls wanted to play there too but decided to wait a bit and let the boys have their turn. Where did most of the girls go? They headed for the block center.

My students never cease to surprise me with the choices they will make each day. I just love it! After a bit, the girls began to trickle into the housekeeping center too.

Most of the morning was spent checking things out. I had expected the children to be more curious about the materials at this stage and less focused on interactive dramatic play. That will come soon enough but for today, the children focused on their exploration.

By day 2 and 3 of our week, the children had settled down into a more constructive type of play in the housekeeping center.

I was worried that my setup would be a bit too small for quality play but it turned out that the smallness wasn’t a problem for the children at all. The children have naturally taken turns spending time in the kitchen and have began settling into their different roles as mom, dad, server, cook, or whatever it is they imagine themselves to be.

Links to Grow On

]]>https://teachpreschool.org/2018/01/12/look-decided-play-housekeeping-center/feed/0https://teachpreschool.org/2018/01/12/look-decided-play-housekeeping-center/The invisible candy cane stripeshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TeachPreschool/~3/zDB0S-QFYmE/
https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/21/invisible-candy-cane-stripes/#respondThu, 21 Dec 2017 12:00:47 +0000https://teachpreschool.org/?p=42779Invisible Candy Cane Stripes I want to tell you about how Ms. Lauren introduced the children to their very own invisible candy canes stripes. Ms. Lauren began the morning by reading the story titled, “How the Candy Cane Got its Stripes” by Scott Casperson to our Pre-K class as part of our study on candy […]

Invisible Candy Cane Stripes

I want to tell you about how Ms. Lauren introduced the children to their very own invisible candy canes stripes.

Ms. Lauren began the morning by reading the story titled, “How the Candy Cane Got its Stripes” by Scott Casperson to our Pre-K class as part of our study on candy canes. This book was a little bit longer than most of the stories we read to the children but the children loved it and listened to the entire reading. It is about a candy cane that doesn’t have any stripes and all that happens in the quest to be like all the other candy canes.

After reading the story, Ms. Lauren handed each child one of our white felt lap boards and told them that on their board was a candy cane. The children looked down and didn’t see anything. Ms. Lauren went on to tell them that she had a candy cane on her board too only it was invisible. The children were certain that Ms. Lauren did not have a candy cane on her board and there wasn’t one on their boards either.

Ms. Lauren told the children that she would make the candy cane appear on her board but first, they had to close their eyes. Everyone closed their eyes and when they opened them, there was indeed a candy cane on Ms. Lauren’s board. The children were excited at the possibility of making their own invisible candy canes appear but first, they told Ms. Lauren that she had to close her eyes.

While Ms. Lauren kept her eyes closed, the children went to work adding stripes to their boards. Before long, all types of candy canes started to appear.

The children took their time to line the stripes to their boards exactly in the place they wanted. Ms. Lauren’s introduction to this process inspired the children to take their time, to be thoughtful, and to be intentional in setting out their stripes. When the children were done, Ms. Lauren was invited to look at what the children had accomplished. And what an accomplishment it truly was!

This book is available on Amazon

If you would like your own copy of this book or the materials similar to what we used, I have added Amazon affiliate links below.

More to Grow On!

]]>https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/21/invisible-candy-cane-stripes/feed/0https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/21/invisible-candy-cane-stripes/Turn your magnet board into a graph!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TeachPreschool/~3/MQQbbp6ABzw/
https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/20/turn-magnet-board-graph/#respondWed, 20 Dec 2017 12:00:45 +0000https://teachpreschool.org/?p=42757The Magnet Board If you happen to have a magnet board, you might be looking for something extra you can do with it. How about turning your magnet board into a graph? The magnet board is a wonderful tool for all kinds of mathematical processes. We attached ours to the wall using velcro strips so […]

The Magnet Board

If you happen to have a magnet board, you might be looking for something extra you can do with it. How about turning your magnet board into a graph?

The magnet board is a wonderful tool for all kinds of mathematical processes. We attached ours to the wall using velcro strips so the children would have a vertical surface they could work on.

As a little background on how to make a magnet board such as this, go to this post: DIY Magnet Board. To turn our magnet board into a graph, I simply added lines using tape. You can use tape to make all kinds of charts, lines, and graphs on the magnet board.

What you see on this board are cardboard ornaments with magnets glued onto the back. I find using E6000 glue is much better than using hot glue. Hot glue tends to pop off the back after some use much more often than a good craft glue.

The children stopped by the board all throughout the week to sort, graph, arrange or count their ornaments. We had so many things going on throughout the classroom that I didn’t take the time to discuss the process with the children but I didn’t really need to. The children figured out how to explore the process without any help from me.

At the end of each day, I would stop by and clear off all of the ornaments so that the board was ready for a new student or group of students to begin again. Some of my students preferred to work alone while others preferred to work with a friend. There is always lots of room for more than one child to explore the process.

I love having a variety of things out around the classroom that the children can explore alone or with friends. The magnet board makes a wonderful center that invites thinking and doing.

Things for the Magnetic Board!

Below are a few amazon affiliate links that are similar to the kinds of other things we set out for play on our magnetic board!

More to Grow On!

]]>https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/20/turn-magnet-board-graph/feed/0https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/20/turn-magnet-board-graph/These gift boxes were not empty!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TeachPreschool/~3/skSXP6Y3FTY/
https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/19/gift-boxes-not-empty/#respondTue, 19 Dec 2017 12:00:51 +0000https://teachpreschool.org/?p=42746 Throughout our two week focus on Christmas, my students gave me a ton of empty gift boxes. But wait a minute, these gift boxes were not empty! Well maybe to the untrained eye they are empty but inside each gift box was a chance for me to foster a child’s sense of community. As […]

Throughout our two week focus on Christmas, my students gave me a ton of empty gift boxes. But wait a minute, these gift boxes were not empty!

Well maybe to the untrained eye they are empty but inside each gift box was a chance for me to foster a child’s sense of community. As a child gave a box, My teachers and I had the chance to celebrate that child’s effort to bring me some joy.

As I opened another lid and peeked inside, I was found the child’s imagination at play and my imagination was sparked too.

Day after day, the children continued their pretend play. If any teacher sat down on the floor in the block center, you better believe they were going to be getting one surprise after another.

Some of our gift boxes were filled with animals, rocks, blocks, or other materials from around the classroom while others were filled with kindness, love, and laughter. It really didn’t matter what was in the box. What mattered was the giving.

Oh to be given so many gifts every single day by my students makes me a very lucky teacher indeed!

Wish you were getting as many things from your students? Just fill your classroom with empty gift boxes and you will not be disapointed.

Toys that inspire imagination!

The Amazon affiliate links below are to great gift ideas that inspire imagination!

Books about Gifts

The Amazon affiliate links below are to great books about gifts, gift giving, and gift boxes!

More to Grow On!

]]>https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/19/gift-boxes-not-empty/feed/0https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/19/gift-boxes-not-empty/This holiday light box is so simple to make!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TeachPreschool/~3/XUL-Yk13WZM/
https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/18/holiday-light-box-simple-make/#respondMon, 18 Dec 2017 12:00:37 +0000https://teachpreschool.org/?p=42767Holiday Light Box This DIY light box is super simple to make and SO fun to explore! To make the box I poked a few small holes around one side of the box with a screwdriver then pushed the lights of a battery operated string of lights through the holes. I poked the holes as […]

Holiday Light Box

This DIY light box is super simple to make and SO fun to explore!

To make the box I poked a few small holes around one side of the box with a screwdriver then pushed the lights of a battery operated string of lights through the holes. I poked the holes as I went along so I wouldn’t have to count how many holes and end up with extra holes in the end. Yep – I had to use my noggin on this one.

I taped the battery pack that operated the lights to the outside of the box too so the children could turn the lights on and off. There was also two settings. One setting left the lights on while the other setting made the lights blink on and off.

I suppose I could have decorated my box a bit to make it look more holiday but this idea was an extension of our discussion on lights and energy that I told you about in this post: How to explore energy with energetic kids! We weren’t really focused on the holiday aspect as much as continuing our study on light and energy.

The children loved crawling inside the box with a friend and laying back to look at the lights. We had LOTS of giggles and some singing along the way. I also decided to only put lights at the top so the children wouldn’t sit or lean against the light bulbs while they went in and and out of the light box.

This really was super simple to put together and did I mention that is was SO fun to explore too?

These lights are similar to the ones we used!

I purchased my lights from Hobby Lobby but in case I found some that were similar on Amazon.

And we were looking for a good holiday book to read and this one seemed to fit nicely so we read it as part of our large group read-aloud experience.

More to Grow On!

]]>https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/18/holiday-light-box-simple-make/feed/0https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/18/holiday-light-box-simple-make/How to explore energy with energetic kids!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TeachPreschool/~3/fvRt0pCBrkU/
https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/17/explore-energy-energetic-kids/#commentsSun, 17 Dec 2017 12:00:14 +0000https://teachpreschool.org/?p=42736Discovering the power of very own energy! Our energetic students were surprised to find out that they have real energy flowing through their bodies. Although you can explore energy anytime of the year, we thought a simple study on energy would be an excellent STEM-based addition to our holiday planning. All around our city, in […]

Discovering the power of very own energy!

Our energetic students were surprised to find out that they have real energy flowing through their bodies.

Although you can explore energy anytime of the year, we thought a simple study on energy would be an excellent STEM-based addition to our holiday planning. All around our city, in our homes, and even in our classroom, there are lots of holiday lights. Some of the lights are blinking while other lights do not blink.

We discovered that in order for the lights to work, they need to be attached to a source of power. I found some lights that were battery operated for the children to check out plus we had our tree lights that were plugged into the wall.

Energy Experiment

Now for the best part of our exploration. I introduced our students to an energy tube but before using the tube, we talked about how we have energy in our own bodies. We can feel our energy as it helps us run and play but the problem is, we can’t really see our energy. My students were so excited to find out that they have energy that flows right through their own bodies. They really cracked me up with their energetic response to our discussion.

Now it was time to see if we could actually see the energy we produce. I stood up and held onto the tube with one hand then invited a student to hold the other end of the tube but we still couldn’t see any results. We continued to invite each of the children to hold hands until everyone was in our circle but then we learned that in order for us to actually see the energy, we had to close the circle which is just like closing a circuit (notice that we added another really cool new scientific word – circuit).

The last child to join our circle was then invited to simply touch a finger to my finger and guess what happened! Our energy tube lit up and made sounds! Oh my goodness, that was one exciting moment. If any child let go, our circuit would be broken and then we couldn’t see the product of the energy we made together.

Together, we could accomplish our goal which was a wonderful and practical lesson in working together as a team.

Independent Energy Exploration

Of course, my students were naturally going to want to explore the energy tube on their own but instead of letting them run around the room with it, I taped the tube and our battery operated lights to the wall.

The children could stop by anytime and check out the wall on their own or with a friend.

One group of children tried different ways to connecting to close the circuit, “let’s touch pinkys” “let’s give a high five!” “Lets touch tummies!” “Let me touch your head.” Not every approach worked (clothing got in the way) but what a wonderful way to explore through trial and error, experimentation, and inquisitive exploration.

Get Your Own Energy Tube

You may have come across these super cool tubes in the store but if you haven’t, I have provided an Amazon affiliate link below in case you want to get an energy tube for your energetic kids!

Not intended for play with young children but makes a great way to explore energy under teacher supervision!

]]>https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/17/explore-energy-energetic-kids/feed/1https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/17/explore-energy-energetic-kids/How to create your own arctic small world play!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TeachPreschool/~3/QpQEVi6T72Y/
https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/16/arctic-small-world/#commentsSat, 16 Dec 2017 18:55:56 +0000https://teachpreschool.org/?p=42725Small World Play by Meri Cherry A wonderful way to celebrate any season or holiday is to invite your students to create their own small world play! Today, my special guest is a wonderful blogger and a long time friend – Meri Cherry! Hello! I am so excited to be here on Teach Preschool. I’ve […]

Small World Play by Meri Cherry

A wonderful way to celebrate any season or holiday is to invite your students to create their own small world play! Today, my special guest is a wonderful blogger and a long time friend – Meri Cherry!

Hello! I am so excited to be here on Teach Preschool. I’ve been following Deborah’s work and school for a long time and it feels great to be over here sharing some ideas from my own blog, Meri Cherry. I am an art teacher in Los Angeles with over 20 years teaching experience from toddler age to elementary age. Over the past 20 years I’ve become wonderfully passionate about Process Art and it’s many benefits.

*Process Art is art that’s all about the making and the doing, rather than the finished product. I’m sure you’ve heard Deborah talk about it and seen a lot of examples of process art in her work. I’ve become so passionate about Process Art that I’ve created a whole toolkit about it, called The Process Art Toolkit, to help moms, dads, educators and caregivers have all the tools they need to implement process art into the daily lives.

Here’s one of my favorite creative ideas with kids and I’ve taken directly out of the Process Art Toolkit. It’s called a Small World. Small Worlds are like little scenes kids can interact and play with. They can work with any theme or topic. We recently hosted a Penguin Party at Meri Cherry Art Studio, a process based art studio in Los Angeles. The birthday girl was a big penguin fan so we found ways to turn our small worlds in Arctic Small Worlds. Aren’t they amazing?

All of our small worlds start with a terra-cotta plate and play dough to match the theme. In this case we didn’t dye the play dough so it would look like snow, though we did spray paint the planters a cool blue before the party.

Kids start by mushing the play dough into the terra-cotta plate and spreading it all around. They can play with it as long as they’d like and create mountains, snowmen, icebergs, you name it.

Then have a buffet of materials set up to create with and push into the play dough. One of the reasons this activity is so fantastic is that there’s no glue involved when you push things into the play dough. Kids of all ages can push things into play dough and they can do it over and over again. *Note-The play dough will begin to dry after a few hours to create a permanent world. If you want it to last longer, you can wrap it in plastic.

Some materials you might want to include for your Arctic Small Worlds are…

a cut piece of cardboard with glued on blue papers or blue sand to represent water.

You will need some white glue to create the different objects you see here for the small worlds, but everything can stick right into the play dough as you go. Just get creative and have fun with it. If you want to see another example of a small world, check out these Candylands –> http://www.mericherry.com/2017/10/04/candy-worlds-candy-craft/.

If you like this activity and are feeling inspired to learn more Process Art:

The Process Art Toolkit is filled with tons of ideas, language to use with children while creating, and lots of art tips to make this a great experience for you and your children.

All Teach Preschool Readers are invited to use the code: Teach Preschool

More to Grow On

]]>https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/16/arctic-small-world/feed/2https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/16/arctic-small-world/Hang on to your candy cane tubes for this!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TeachPreschool/~3/zq5rqw2oWZM/
https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/06/candy-cane-tubes/#respondWed, 06 Dec 2017 06:06:26 +0000https://teachpreschool.org/?p=42715Hang on to those candy cane tubes! Over my many years of teaching, I am finally at a point where I don’t save everything that I think I might use some day. For those of you who haven’t been teaching very long, you need to know that not keeping everything year after year is actually […]

Hang on to those candy cane tubes!

Over my many years of teaching, I am finally at a point where I don’t save everything that I think I might use some day. For those of you who haven’t been teaching very long, you need to know that not keeping everything year after year is actually a major accomplishment. However, if there is one thing I do hang on to, it is my empty candy cane tubes.

There is a difference in candy cane tubes

When it comes to candy cane tubes that you will want to save, there is a difference in which ones you should look for. Avoid the super cheap candy-filled tubes that have an almost impossible to get off label. Check the quality of the tubes. Who knew that candy cane tube quality would be such a big deal! I am here to tell you that we play with our tubes every single Christmas and my good quality candy cane tubes have lasted me for several years now.

If you find a tube that has a seam down one of the long edges or the plastic is super flimsy, then keep looking. If you find a a tube that has a label stuck to it, be prepared to pry that label off. I found candy cane tubes that have a plastic cover that peels right off. You want to look for good quality candy cane tubes that will hold up for play. The cheaply made tubes cost about the same as the quality made tubes but the good tubes will hold up much better over time.

Save the cheap candy cane tubes for play dough

This week, we have been playing with our tubes at the light table. In past years, we have used the candy cane tubes in the water table, sand table, as a discovery tube, and at the math center. The children LOVE playing with these tubes and filling them with gems, buttons, sand, water, or whatever else will fit. I tried play dough once but couldn’t get the stuff out so you might want to save play dough for the cheap tubes so you don’t mind throwing them away.

As my students played with my good quality tubes today, they asked if they could take them home. I had to tell them “no way!” I might go and get some of those cheap tubes to keep around for take home play too but the good quality tubes have to stay in the classroom folks!

Available on Amazon

More to Grow On!

]]>https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/06/candy-cane-tubes/feed/0https://teachpreschool.org/2017/12/06/candy-cane-tubes/A DIY drop box game that my students love!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TeachPreschool/~3/DDGvsnsXkjo/
https://teachpreschool.org/2017/11/01/diy-drop-box-game/#commentsWed, 01 Nov 2017 11:00:55 +0000https://teachpreschool.org/?p=42671DIY drop box game I shared the sweetest, individual-sized, DIY drop box game on my Facebook page and decided it would be perfect for my preschool and prekindergarten age students if I could find a bigger box. It just so happened I had saved two long boxes over the summer. I can’t remember what actually […]

DIY drop box game

I shared the sweetest, individual-sized, DIY drop box game on my Facebook page and decided it would be perfect for my preschool and prekindergarten age students if I could find a bigger box.

It just so happened I had saved two long boxes over the summer. I can’t remember what actually came in the boxes but I knew that I should hold onto them. I love to use boxes like these for partner or group activities. All I needed to do was wait for a fun idea to come along and I would be all ready to go. The only scary part was cutting the holes in the boxes because once I cut those holes, there would be no going back to using the boxes for a different plan. I decided to go for it and it ended up being a very good decision.

In one of our boxes I cut three holes straight down the middle. In the other box, I cut three holes diagonally across the box. I wasn’t sure whether to cut one, three, or more holes but three worked perfectly for my students. I think more than three holes would have made the process too easy and one hole might have been a little too challenging.

These types of games are such a great way to promote working together as a team. It took a few tries for some of my students to realize how to work together to make the ball head to one hole over another.

A few of my students enjoyed giving the game a try on their own too!

See our DIY Drop Box Game in action

I thought you might enjoy seeing this game in action so check out this video of my students playing our DIY Drop Box Game!

Available on Amazon

Links to Grow On!

There are so many wonderful ways to explore boxes! Check out these three….

]]>https://teachpreschool.org/2017/11/01/diy-drop-box-game/feed/1https://teachpreschool.org/2017/11/01/diy-drop-box-game/This dot game is simple to make and fun to play!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TeachPreschool/~3/CemqDJcs26I/
https://teachpreschool.org/2017/10/30/dot-game/#commentsTue, 31 Oct 2017 01:33:36 +0000https://teachpreschool.org/?p=42638This DIY dot game is so simple to make and so fun to play! To Make this DIY Dot Game Miss Kaylin dipped colorful lids in matching colors of paint and then painted circles on a sheet of white paper. Each lid in the basket had a matching circle on the paper (game board). […]

To Make this DIY Dot Game

Miss Kaylin dipped colorful lids in matching colors of paint and then painted circles on a sheet of white paper. Each lid in the basket had a matching circle on the paper (game board). Then Miss Kaylin added a spinner with red, blue, yellow, and green sticker dots. I have lots of folks ask where we get our clear spinners and so I have included a link to the spinners at the end of this post.

To Play the DIY Dot Game

The objective of the game was to promote color recognition and color sorting . The children took turns spinning the spinner then placing that color of lid on the matching circle. The children kept going until all of the circles had a matching colored lid on top. We called the lids “dots” because we had read “The Dot” by Peter Reynolds earlier in the morning and this game was an extension of our book.

Rules for Play

Like most of the DIY games we set out for the children to play, the dot game really had no rules. Instead, the children chose for themselves how to play the game and added their own objectives along the way. Some of the children rooted for getting to set out all the blue dots while others we more excited to fill up the board with all the dots. For the children, the concept of color sorting was secondary and the process of playing a game was of primary interest. For the teachers, the concept of color recognition and color sorting was primary and how they played the game was secondary. It was a perfect partnership of promoting a concept through a simple but interesting process of play.

As the children played the game, I noticed lots of conversation about color and taking turns. I also noticed that the children took their time playing the game which is always a plus in my book!

For those of you who spend time making games for young children, you know that not every game works out like you hope. I know we have our fair share of duds in the process of capturing student attention and keeping them engaged in the process but I am happy to report that this game did a great job of inviting our students to practice their social skills while promoting a little work in colors along the way!